The Israel Defense Forces reportedly rescued over 70 orphans from the Gaza Strip and facilitated their transport to the West Bank, via the outskirts of Jerusalem, in an unusual operation that started on Sunday and continued into Monday.
Far-right ministers were quick to criticize the reported move, as it came during ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza, and while 130 hostages taken during the terror group’s grisly October 7 massacre in southern Israel remain in captivity.
According to a Channel 12 news report, the operation was approved by the National Security Council and conducted in coordination with the Civil Administration. The convoy was expected to cross into the West Bank at 6 p.m. on Monday.
The orphans were reportedly accompanied by dozens of adult staff members from the SOS Children’s Village in southern Gaza’s Rafah that was relocating to Bethlehem in the West Bank. The humanitarian gesture was said to have come at the request of the German embassy in Israel.
“He who is compassionate to the cruel will ultimately become cruel to the compassionate,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich
wrote on X, formerly Twitter, quoting a rabbinic adage. “I demand clarification from the prime minister on who gave this immoral order and with what authority, while our hostages and their children are held captive by the enemy.”
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